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Deep Frying Ookiku Furikabutte 08

By Seleria ⋅ June 4, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Ookiku Furikabutte - No, you did not just cut scenes…
Feel my wrath for cutting scenes!!!

The animators squeezed in TWO FULL CHAPTERS into this episode. When you are trying to force down that much content into a 23-minute show, you are bound to skip A LOT of scenes. The episode just felt so disjointed and rushed. On top of that, the animation went down as well! Well, let us just make the most out of it and get on with the Deep Frying

Missing scenes and some notes

1. After waking up Mihashi, Mihashi’s mom goes about in preparing breakfast, while Mihashi rummages around to look for his short-sleeved shirt. She tells him that he would have had an easier time if he stayed by his grandfather’s side (that is continuing his studies at Mihashi). Without warning, she hugs him and tells him that she prefers it being like this though, with them together.

This would have been such a cute scene to see. I know it is not critical to the plot, but it was still a touching moment shared by mother and son.

2. Mihashi’s mom and Mihashi were riding a Volvo when Mihashi spots Sakaeguchi walking. Mihashi suddenly alights from the vehicle. After exchanging greetings, Mihashi’s mom talks to Sakaeguchi for a bit. She also tells Ren to share his food with Sakaeguchi. Mihashi is holding an onigiri (rice ball) and a meat bun from the convenience store. Seeing Mihashi salivating to eat the two, Sakaeguchi tells him to eat both. Mihashi acknowledges again how good Sakaeguchi is and proceeds to wolf down the bun and rice ball.

Mihashi’s mom should have had a bigger role in this episode. It would have been nice to see this interaction. Also, Mihashi was riding a car and not walking when he met Sakaeguchi.

Ookiku Furikabutte - I want those buns!

Mihashi’s salivating face would have been amusing to see too. It really seemed like he was having such a hard time deciding ^^;;;

3. There were bits of information about the alpha waves that the anime did not mention. One was how Chiyo’s position, when she got scared, mirrors that of the basic defensive position. The basic defensive position, used in many sports, is when your knees are slightly bending and your body is leaning forward with your closed fists, just a little above your waist. I guess it is something like I-am-ready-for-action posture. More on alpha waves below.

4. Nishiura jogged through the town to get to the stadium from their practice site. They were all short of breath, except maybe for Tajima, who seemed to be having a blast, as usual.

Ookiku Furikabutte - Where’s Ren?
Where’s Ren?

5. After Tajima strips down to his boxers, he looks down and says, “Hey, little guy, would you also like to come out for a while?” Hearing this, Momoe gives him the “Akuma” eyes.

Tajima is such a riot, that one line would have made that scene funnier.

6. Before the game starts, Momoe gives the boys a baseball sheet to record the game’s progress. They are to give their forecast for the game.

I think they were going to have some sort of game with the forecasting, with a penalty involving eating protein. Tajima tasted it and was about to spit it when Momoe piggybacked him. She covered his mouth, forcing the protein down his throat! The guys were pretty worked up about it.

I did not read this part in detail, but maybe I will when I find the time. It looked like a fun scene with Tajima in tears after Momoe wrestled him. Momoe totally pawned Tajima!

7. As Haruna throws his warm-up pitch, Abe explains to Mihashi that Haruna was pitching a straight, but with a backspin. He then goes on to illustrate this using the baseball Mihashi had stashed in his uniform.

This would have been listed in the BL moments section if it were animated. Since, Abe spent a bit of time trying to explain and illustrate the pitch to Mihashi. Some one-on-one time

Near the end, when Haruna made his way to the dugout, it was pretty clear that Abe still had some fixation over Haruna. Abe looked sad, probably from remembering his experiences with Haruna. Throughout this time, Tajima was intently listening to Abe’s explaining as well. Must be why he was observing intently when Haruna was doing warm-ups to get a feel for his pitch.

Shiga, you brain freak!

In this episode, we were treated again with Shiga’s incomparable knowledge in brain-related things, first was the brain hormones and now, alpha waves. Like what has been discussed in the anime, alpha waves are emitted when one is in a relaxed state of mind. It does mean, however, that one lacks focus or is not alert during this time.

I guess, it is much like how we are playing online or console games. We consider this activity as leisure, though our concentration is usually high during this time. We need our hand-eye coordination, quick responses and decision-making because it is critical in our strategies, let’s say when we’re playing Starcraft for instance. This is only my personal interpretation of what Shiga said though.

I read a couple of articles online about alpha waves. It is mentioned that alpha waves are produced when one is meditating, which is when our mind is in a stress-free state. This has led to a popular belief that alpha waves contribute to the strengthening of our immune system. Because there is no way that being stress-free can be bad for you, right? In addition, alpha waves contribute to a person’s creativity. So, when you suddenly have a surge of bright ideas, you know that you’ve been blessed by burst of alpha waves.

What has alpha waves got to do with baseball?

Scientist have also found a connection between an athlete’s peak performance, or when at athlete is performing at his best, and alpha waves. Dr. Hardt of the Biocybernaut Institute conducted a study with a group of amateur archers. He noticed that as the archers improved, there was also an increase of alpha waves. I believe that Shiga’s motivation was to exploit the benefits of alpha waves in his players.

I really found this subject quite interesting. I did not know much about alpha. I think we took it up in Psychology, but I can’t remember. Not only is Oofuri entertaining and useful in my language studies, but it is also an avenue of learning things that I did not bother with before.

Further reading:
The Biocybernaut Institute - About / Brain Waves / Alpha Brain Waves
Alpha Waves and Peak Performance
Alpha wave @ Wikipedia
Brainwaves and state of consciousness

Haruna and Abe

Haruna is a big shot pitcher with an even bigger attitude problem. His language is brash and he has an air of arrogance about him. No wonder Abe is so specific about the kind of pitcher that he wants.

It must have been really trying times being Haruna’s catcher. How trying? That is what I want to know. That 80-pitch count limit is pretty steep. In the next episode, the show will delve into that deeper. We will also get to see a young Abe!!! So, I am quite excited about that.

New faces

We were shown a few new characters in this episode. I still do not know much about them. So, if anyone would care to do some introductions, feel free. Of course, put spoiler tags for those juicy bits :3 My thanks in advance.

Final Thoughts

Though I am saddened by the fact they the animators chose to chop off a lot of good stuff, none of them were plot-critical. I am sure they have their reasons. I just hope they will stay close to the manga from now on. It is not doing them any good to deprive us from all the gags.

Ookiku Furikabutte - Protein is evil

Episode 09 will be about Abe and Haruna’s past. Haruna looks so hot in the preview and the young Abe looks adorable. Till the next time… SAY NO TO PROTEINS!!! THEY’RE EVIL!!!

Discussion

16 comments for “Deep Frying Ookiku Furikabutte 08”

I was a bit disappointed when you said that some parts were cut (though not too surprised - I thought the episode didn’t as have many great scenes as, say, ep. 7), but now that you’ve detailed each of them, it may just disappoint me even more. It would have been great to see Mihashi interacting with his mom, or more with Sakaeguchi, especially because I found him more annoying than in the other episodes even though I usually like him a lot. All the crying made me feel like the previous episodes didn’t change him at all, so these fun moments would have helped to sympathize with him once again…

I think I’ll be able to forgive the animation team if they don’t screw up ep09 which sounds very promising. The second picture starting from the end that you used in your summary post for ep08 (in this case, the preview for ep09) just makes me melt (so do the other two next to it, actually, but nothing can beat this sad-looking Abe for me). I can’t wait

With that said, time to go read all the useful info on alpha waves!

Posted by Katapan | June 5, 2007, 12:27 am
Where did the animation go down?

Posted by John Smith | June 5, 2007, 1:03 am
Sometimes, cutting is good because it keeps the plot tighter, which is more important than in anime compared to manga. Because in anime, the discourse time is set while in manga, the reader is free to adjust his own speed.

I would really try to think of the closeness of manly friendship rather than BL though.

Weren’t you a girl? Girls play starcraft and talk about alpha waves? WHAT??

Posted by tj han | June 5, 2007, 2:50 am
@Katapan Yeah, it is sad that there many fun scenes were cut. But I hope they do keep the pacing steady from now on. But like tjhan said, cutting is sometimes necessary.

Enjoy reading about alpha waves, they fascinated me quite a bit. It really is an interesting topic to read on, especially about its benefits

@John Smith If you look at the wide shots in the anime, you’ll see the distortions. Even when Haruna was walking on the field, it looked really weird.

@tjhan Yes, good point. Like I said in the last part of this post, the animation team had their reasons, budget-wise most likely. And as I have mentioned as well, all the scenes that were cut were not important to the plot.

Guys can think of it as manly friendship, girls would like to think otherwise. Much like how girl to girl closeness is yuri for guys, but sisterly love for girls To each his own :3

Weren’t you a girl? Girls play starcraft and talk about alpha waves? WHAT??

OMG! Since when did I stop being a girl?! Lol… Yes, girls play Warcraft, Starcraft, Granado Espada, and all other games that guys play. C’mon is stereotyping still valid in this day and age? Just look at Konata of Lucky Star

Posted by Seleria | June 5, 2007, 9:53 am
Hey I dont think of girlgirl as yuri. I think it’s womanly friendship.

My own girlfriend is a GE addict yeah but I actually play less games than her. The world has changed.

Posted by tj han | June 6, 2007, 1:31 am
I am very disappointed with this ep too because they cut the protein match. However, I have a puny puny hope that they incorporate the protein match in the next ep, since the match is supposed to start on 4th inning (the first 3 innings are for observation time) and ep 8 ends on 2nd inning.

I also feel it’s a pity that they don’t incorporate the scene of Abe teaching Mihashi fastball.
Show ▼

Abe is extremely patient to Mihashi at this point of the anime but after this his fuse will be getting shorter and shorter after this. Having many younger siblings, I had my fuse getting shorter every passing day during summer vacations (god bless school -_-;). Seeing him getting nuts as the story progress just makes me laugh … in sympathy, since I have been there. This scene’s Abe makes a great contrast with the 1-month later Abe. My, Anime Abe will look like someone who needs anger management…

@Katapan: I actually like the fact that Mihashi does not change in a zip. After all, deeper scars require longer healing period. Mihashi was bullied for 3 years, ignored for 8 years, spoiled by his family ever since he was born. I don’t think he can change his personality in just 1 week. In fact, if Mihashi changes that quickly, that means he was just bitching before (in my subjective opinion).

Posted by p-kun | June 6, 2007, 9:04 am
While I am sad to know that they cut some things (I’m reading the manga too, and Tajima’s “little man” comment is one of my favorite parts in all eight books), I’m sure there was some reason. I actually have no idea how this will all turn out. The anime is currently in book three, and only on episode nine. The manga just has eight volumes, though the monthly series is a little further ahead. If they stick strictly to the manga, the series will have to end at Tosei. I wonder how that will work out…

And you’re a MUCH better person than me. Every time Shiga talks, I skip ahead in the books. I like Shiga as a character, but his brain lectures confuse the heck outta me. When I read it, I was like, “Ok Shiga, what do alpha waves have to do with baseball?” I applaud you for your patience.

Thanks for the summary. Somehow, I’m missing books 2 and 3 from my collection, so the summary helped me remember some things. I can’t wait until the next episode! Young!Abe and his crying. Too bad Mihashi really likes Haruna. I also hope the animators include Mihashi’s birthday in the series, as that episode has a LOT of slash potential.

Posted by Reppu | June 6, 2007, 12:09 pm
@Reppu Shiga’s lectures and Momokan’s instructions; I skip them all when I read a new chapter for the first time. :D; It had taken a long time before I mustered up the courage to challenge alpha waves.

Mihashi’s birthday has to be included, I think, or else the animators would have to start writing their own plot. Show ▼

The practice board Mihashi’s dad made for him is shown in the opening, so it would be weird if it didn’t come up in the show (expecially since it looks kind of creepy when you don’t know what it is).

Besides, that chapter was not only cute, but pretty important for Mihashi’s relations with his new teammates. The anime can’t leave out all scenes involving Nishiura as a team or the series will end before the viewers get to know the members (other than Miha, Abe, Tajima and Hanai, that is). Suyama has already lost an important moment. I honestly don’t know if I would remember his name now if it weren’t for the protein scene in book 2.

As for the estimated number of episodes, Kasukabe is my hope. If the series was to end at Tosei, they would probably have more screen time in ep.8, and Kasukabe wouldn’t have turned up at all. Though maybe it’s just my wishful thinking, ha ha.

Posted by iciak | June 6, 2007, 5:12 pm
@p-kun: well, now that I’ve been able to think about it twice, the “lack” of change that bothered me the most was his attitude towards Abe. Like for instance, I found it kind of weird that he didn’t mind grabbing Nishihiro’s hand but hesitated to take Abe’s. I thought that they had gained quite a bit of trust during the practice match so I always expected Mihashi to feel a bit less shy when around Abe (he did start following him back to the bench feeling elated after the scene in ep3). In the end, seeing him feeling the most awkward when around Abe kind of felt like getting back to the situation Mihashi was in in ep2 (where there was no real trust yet).
Maybe I am just misinterpreting the scene though, but I don’t think he should have acted this way, even though it might have reminded him of a ~~great~~ embarrassing moment. As a shy person, I’d probably be more reluctant to take Nishihiro’s hand because it doesn’t look like they’ve even talked to each other once.

Anyway, thanks for giving your opinion, you made me realize that I was expecting too much change from him after all, and you are totally right when saying that it’s better if he doesn’t stop being extremely shy or not trusting himself so soon.

Posted by Katapan | June 6, 2007, 8:07 pm
@tj han Ah, so you do know that girl gamers exist Hehehe… welcome to the 21st century

@p-kun As always, thanks for the spoilers and insights. I also do hope that the animators incorporate the gags.

@Reppu Hurray for slash potential! Lol, thanks for the applause, but I had to go through the alpha waves to write my summary. I really do take a lot of care into writing accurate information.

Also, it took me quite a bit of time before I was able to digest everything that Shiga said. It is hard, but fun.

@iciak Thanks for the spoiler as well I haven’t read that far into the manga to know about it, so it is always good to have some information on what to expect.

Sadly, I do not have much luxury in skipping on much of the details when I read the manga. Also, usually Shiga’s insights are good topics to write on the Deep Frying posts.

@Katapan I think Mihashi is still learning how to make friends and how to interact with people who do not push him away and actually respect him as a person. The person he is most afraid to lose at this point is Abe. So, maybe that could be the reason behind his rather guarded attitude towards Abe.

In this episode, we saw how Mihashi struggled to greet Sakaeguchi. Such a simple and mundane task like saying hello is a big effort for Mihashi. So, given that he is interacting with Abe, his fear might be raised to ten-fold ^^;;;

Also, the awkward moments are the most enjoyable (inner fangirl talking)

Posted by Seleria | June 6, 2007, 8:44 pm
@Seleria and Katapan: Abe seems to be feared not only by Mihashi, but even by the other Nishiuras. Perhaps Mihashi knows instinctively that Nishihiro is not as scary as Abe XD.

Posted by p-kun | June 7, 2007, 1:24 am
@p-kun
Show ▼

I’ve been reading on the next chapter to prepare for the next episode and Abe seems to be terrorizing Mihashi more than usual Which is entertaining at the very least

Posted by Seleria | June 7, 2007, 8:20 am
@Seleria:
Show ▼

That’s only the beginning actually XD. Abe’s temper is going to get even worse that Abe himself is alarmed. He’s like someone accumulating so much stress that even a single thing would make him explode, poor guy. Mihashi really needs to grow mentally and starts to take the responsibility that he has been pushing to Abe - the responsibility of taking care of himself (personally looking forward to this development).

On the plus side, Abe’s temper actually makes every scene where Abe swallows his anger and speaks kindly to Mihashi very sweet :).

Posted by p-kun | June 7, 2007, 9:21 am
Mihashi really needs to grow mentally and starts to take the responsibility that he has been pushing to Abe - the responsibility of taking care of himself (personally looking forward to this development).

And I’m looking forward to Abe’s development. Show ▼

I don’t know, maybe my Abe fixation is to blame, but if I were to choose one reason why the Nishiura battery doesn’t always function the way they should, I would point at Abe, not Mihashi.

Mihashi is stupid, but his baseball sense is much better than it may appear. He is a good pitcher. There are but two problems: he has no confidence, and he’s an idiot; Abe, being aware of the latter, has been failing to acknowledge the former for… a long time now. He only knows how to utilize Mihashi’s funny pitches, not “Mihashi as a pitcher.”

I mean, Abe is a brilliant game maker, but it’s not like he doesn’t make mistakes. He knows that, he can identify his own errors, he admits to them. The thing is, Mihashi can tell if Abe’s instructions are wrong, even if he’s not smart enough to tell why, but Abe doesn’t consider it a possibility that Mihashi may have noticed something he himself overlooked.

There’s this one scene around chapter 40, when Abe was discussing Nishiura’s previous match with his father. The father pointed out one particular mistake and asked if the pitcher had agreed to follow Abe’s signs at that time. Abe’s reaction was like, “Huh? Agreed?” As if the pitcher’s only job was to throw the ball. But there are things the catcher can’t see, like for example Oda closing his eyes during the Mihoshi game, and there’s always the danger of his calculations being read by the opponents. Abe doesn’t seem to let that thought surface in his game planning.

Mihashi wants to follow Abe’s lead and I bet he would still be the happiest if he didn’t need to shake his head even if it was natural for him to do so, but if he had the courage to react just in those rare instances… only that he will never gain that courage as long as Abe doesn’t learn to trust him, and for that to happen the latter needs to acknowledge the fact that Mihashi thinks. Which he does. Albeit slowly. xD;

This said, I love seeing Abe frustrated and in denial. I’m just awfully curious how Higuchi plans to deal with that funny relationship. If at all.

Posted by iciak | June 8, 2007, 3:14 am
To iciak: I really enjoy your point of view of the relationship between Abe and Mihashi :).

Show ▼

Have you read chapter 43-44? I think you have everything you wish for there. Abe crumbling in a game and Mihashi to the rescue (kinda) - I love those chapters mainly because I love seeing Abe frustrated too XD.

I agree with you about Abe being self-centered as a catcher. My comment about Mihashi taking care of himself is more for the life outside baseball games.

I feel that Abe and Mihashi is a lot like me and my younger siblings (who are over 10 years younger than me btw). It’s like me looking at them who can not do anything by themselves yet and this make me want to do help for them.

However, after some time, you get really tired of baby sitting them and somehow their clumsiness which was cute before became really really irritating. But you know that they can’t help it because they are just dependent on you and then you swallow your anger and treat them nicely. But since you are accumulating stress, you’ll explode at random times for stupid reasons.

Doesn’t this feel much like Abe and Mihashi’s relationship? Since I know how it feels in Abe’s shoes better than how it feels in Mihashi’s shoes, I’m biased against Mihashi -_-;.

It’s kinda hard to take someone’s opinion seriously when you consider him as a kid, which might be why Abe makes all the decisions without Mihashi’s inputs and think that he knows what’s best for Mihashi (I mean, when we were young, didn’t parents always say that they knew the best for us and just made decisions without consulting to us?). I imagine Abe will be thinking something like “I won’t make Mihashi worried too much about things I can handle like pitch types so he can concentrate on pitching.” He seems to be totally this type as shown in ch 39 where he is worried how far Mihashi can compete with other pitchers who both have talent and are dilligent, but he doesn’t want to tell Mihashi this.

Also, I don’t feel that Abe does not appreciate Mihashi’s thought as you might see in ch 43 (which I won’t spoil you). I think Abe is more like a person who appreciates other people inside but unfortunately, his short fuse just plain scares people out of talking to him.

All in all, I suppose while the intent might be good, Abe ends up alienating Mihashi from the decision making process because it’s hard for him to give credit to Mihashi due to the way their relationship goes. Well, Abe has his flaws. I just think that if I were Abe, I would do the same thing. Reading your point of view, I guess I went to far to think that anyone in Abe’s shoes will do the same thing :).

Posted by p-kun | June 8, 2007, 9:40 am
@p-kun at iciak Lol, I see you both have become close friends Thanks for sharing your insights, it was a nice read ^^ I hope you guys continue to enlighten us.

My many thanks to you and to everyone else who take their time to comment and really delve into character development, plot, etc.

Posted by Seleria | June 8, 2007, 10:22 am